Libyan
UN
Rep, Told of a
Security
Council Trip,
Tells Press
There's No
"Need for Them
to
Visit"
By
Matthew
Russell Lee,
Exclusive
UNITED
NATIONS,
December 2 --
After a possible
Libya trip by
the UN
Security
Council was
first reported
by Inner City
Press on
Friday
morning, by
Friday
afternoon cold
water had been
thrown on the
idea.
Inner
City Press
asked Libyan
diplomat
Ibrahim
Dabbashi about
the idea of a
trip to
Libya. "I
don't think
there is any
need for them
to visit,"
Dabbashi told
Inner City
Press. He
added that
"personal
invitations"
might be made
- but that
wouldn't be a
formal
Council trip.
The
Council's
president for
December
Vitaly Churkin
of Russia,
when asked by
Inner
City Press
about the
closed door
discussion
during his
mid-Friday
press
conference on
the month's
program of
work,
confirmed that
Libya
was a country
discussed,
among others,
with a first
trip
tentatively
scheduled for
mid February.
Sources
told Inner
City Press
that the UK
raised the
possibility of
a Council trip
to
Egypt, to
visit the Arab
League, and to
Libya. The
latter may now
be
removed from
the table.
(c) UN Photo
Dabbashi at
UN, UNSC in
Libya not
shown
The
representative
of another
permanent
Security
Council
member, when
told by Inner
City
Press what
Dabbashi had
said,
indicated that
for a Council
trip to
take place,
they have to
be welcome and
invited.
At times,
Sudan has
been less than
welcoming, for
example when
the Council
wanted to go
to Abyei in
May 2011
before South
Sudan's
independence.
On
the other hand
countries like
Liberia with
UN
peacekeeping
mission seem
to like the
Council to
visit. Libya,
if Dabbashi's
comments are
the judge, is
somewhere in
the middle.
After
some distaste
at Ian
Martin's plan
for military
observers --
obtained and
published
by Inner City
Press, and
panned by the
then Benghazi
based TNC --
Libya has
agreed to the
UNSMIL
mission, which
is (very)
slowly
staffing up.
But
as to the
Security
Council
itself,
Dabbashi said,
"I don't think
there is
any need for
them to
visit." Watch
this site.
, 
